Boulder state Rep. Claire Levy is reportedly testing the waters for a possible bill to end the death penalty in Colorado. We hope she takes the plunge. You can’t pass legislation unless you try, and the stars may finally be aligned for success on this difficult issue.

As The Denver Post’s Jessica Fender pointed out in an article Wednesday, several factors could work in favor of death-penalty opponents. Not only do Democrats control both the House and Senate, but Gov. John Hickenlooper has indicated he might be open to the idea. Although Hickenlooper did not support abolishing the death penalty when he ran for office in 2010, he now says that “capital punishment is another one of those things where I haven’t come to rest on a position.”

From our perspective, it would be better if the governor favored banning capital punishment outright, but maybe that’s not far in the wings. In the meantime, if he’s looking for reasons to embrace abolition, we’d be happy to help out.

Start with the fact that capital punishment is nearly extinct in Colorado already as a practical matter, with only one execution occurring in the past 45 years. Admittedly, part of the reason for this long dry spell has to do with court decisions at various times that pushed some inmates off death row. However, the bigger reason is that prosecutors don’t often seek the death penalty and juries are reluctant to embrace it when they do.

But that in turn means that the penalty is unevenly applied — that there are many instances when prosecutors could have sought the death penalty but didn’t as well as instances when criminals committing similarly brutal murders end up being punished in significantly different ways. That shouldn’t be.

There’s a moral case to be made against the death penalty, too: It’s irrevocable even though the legal system has been known to make mistakes. In addition, securing the death penalty and then fighting the numerous appeals sucks up a great deal of prosecutorial energy and resources.

Attorney General John Suthers argues that there are certain cases when the death penalty is especially needed: such as for murderers who kill witnesses as well as prisoners who already face life imprisonment.

Those are serious arguments, but we don’t think they undermine the overall case against capital punishment or the inconvenient fact that the death penalty is extraordinarily rare already.